Municipal waste statistics for Ireland

EPA waste data release 16 December 2024. Latest reference year 2022 (Data subject to Eurostat validation)

The EPA reports annually on how much municipal waste is generated and how it is treated.  In 2022, Ireland generated 3.19 million tonnes of municipal waste and recycled 41% of it.

What is municipal waste?

Municipal waste is waste from households and other sources such as schools, shops, small businesses and commercial premises. Municipal waste can include:

• paper and cardboard
• glass
• metals
• plastics
• biowaste
• wood
• textiles
• packaging
• waste electrical and electronic equipment
• waste batteries and accumulators
• bulky waste, including mattresses and furniture.

Municipal waste is usually collected at kerbside or people bring it to collection centres such as bring banks or civic amenity facilities

In Ireland the following types of municipal waste are collected at kerbside or from Civic Amenity Sites (CAS) and bring centres:

• Residual waste - mixed waste that is not recyclable;
• Recyclable waste – mixed dry recyclable materials inc. plastic, paper, cardboard and metals;
• Biowaste (i.e. brown bin) - organic waste composed mainly of food and garden waste;
• Bring centre waste – separately collected glass, metals, textiles, etc. 
• Hazardous wastes – paint, waste oils, chemicals, medicines, etc.
• Bulky waste – large waste items that do not fit into a wheelie bin, e.g. broken furniture, carpets, toys etc; and
• Batteries and Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE).

Our national municipal waste data releases are based on information compiled in line with EU regulations. These regulations changed from reporting year 2020 onwards and therefore the municipal waste information from 2020 onwards is not directly comparable to earlier data.

Key findings for 2022

• Ireland generated 3.19 million tonnes of municipal waste in 2022, relatively unchanged to the 3.17 million tonnes generated in 2021 (refer to Table 1).
• Between 2016 and 2022, municipal waste increased from 2.7 million tonnes to 3.19 million tonnes.
• Of the 3.19 million tonnes of municipal waste in 2022, 55% came from households and 45% from commercial sources (refer to Table 2).
• Some 1.3 million tonnes of municipal waste generated in Ireland was recycled in 2022, resulting in a recycling rate of 41% [1]. This indicates that we face significant challenges to meet the upcoming EU recycling targets for 2025 to 2035 [2] (refer to Figure 1).
• Of the municipal waste recycled in 2022, over 825,000 tonnes went for material recycling (approximately the same as 2021) and over 480,000 tonnes were treated by composting/anaerobic digestion (approximately the same as 2021 but up 37% on 2020) (Table 1 and Figure 2). The large increase of composted/anaerobically digested biowaste from 2020 is mainly due to a change in our way of estimating home composting.
• A rounded 1.3 million tonnes of Ireland’s municipal waste went for incineration with energy recovery in 2022. This tonnage is 43% of municipal waste managed and a marginal increase on the 42% achieved in 2021. (Figure 3). 
• Ireland’s landfill rate for municipal waste managed was 15% in 2022. This is a 1% decrease from 2021’s rate of 16%.
• There has been a steep decline in Ireland’s landfill rate for municipal waste from over 80% in 2001. Ireland must reduce the share of municipal waste landfilled to 10% or less by 2035, which includes waste landfilled at each step along the waste treatment process in Ireland and abroad.
• An estimated 39% (1.2 million tonnes) of all municipal waste managed was exported abroad in 2022, equal to the 39% in 2021. Of the waste exported, most went for material recycling [3] (48%) or energy recovery (39%) while 11% went for composting or anaerobic digestion.

Figure 1. Ireland's generation and recycling of municipal waste compared to EU targets.

Figure 2. Treatment of municipal waste in 2022.

Figure 3. Trends in the management of municipal waste in Ireland, 2012 to 2022.

Figure 4. Tonnage of municipal waste generated and gross national disposable income, 2016 to 2022.

Gross national disposable income - CSO

Outlook

Municipal waste generation grew by over 420,000 tonnes, or over 15%, between 2016 and 2022. Over the same period, there has been no improvement in the recycling rate for municipal waste which remains at 41%. The gap to the 2025 target of 55% is considerable (14%) and cannot be bridged without targeted interventions.

Correlating trends between municipal waste generation and disposable income since 2016 (see figure 4) suggest a strong link between economic and waste growth. There is a need for implementing policy measures to prevent municipal waste generation and to break the link between economic growth and waste generation.

Measures to curb municipal waste generation and/or increase recycling include incentives to protect primary resources through incentivising use of secondary or recycled materials, waste treatment levies, waste collection charges, enforcement action, awareness-raising campaigns and education.

Waste composition analysis carried out by EPA in 2022 documents that only 26% of the materials found in the residual bin were in the correct waste stream and that 74% could be managed through better segregation via other waste management routes. 32% of the material found in residual bins could be segregated into the organic waste stream and 37% could be segregated into the mixed recyclables stream, with a further 5% of special wastes that could be managed through alternative management routes. The introduction of a mandatory incentivised charging system for non-household municipal waste in 2023 incentivises waste reduction and will boost Ireland's recycling percentages.

Reporting note

Our national municipal waste data releases are based on information that is in line with the data we submit to Eurostat (the statistical office of the European Union) to fulfil our municipal waste reporting obligations. For reporting year 2020, Eurostat changed the reporting rules for municipal waste. The Irish information published in 2019 and earlier years is therefore not directly comparable to the information released from reporting year 2020 on.

The data we submit to Eurostat satisfy our reporting requirements under the Waste Framework Directive, the Landfill Directive and the OECD/Eurostat Joint Questionnaire. The data are to be submitted at the end of Q2 of the reference year +2. Following validation by Eurostat, official statistics for Ireland and all Member States are published on the Eurostat website as part of the ‘Municipal waste by waste management operations’ dataset. Data on municipal waste recycling rates for Member States are also published on the Eurostat website.

About Our Waste Statistics

View information about how the EPA compiles and reports Official European Waste Statistics.

[1] This includes preparing for reuse, material recycling, and composting/anaerobic digestion of biowaste.

[2] The recycling and preparing for reuse percentages under the revised WFD are set to increase to 55% from 2025, 60% from 2030 and 65% from 2035.

[3] Including preparing for reuse and material recycling.

To see data from previous years see: Municipal Waste Data Archive | Environmental Protection Agency (epa.ie)